18th January – Vinh City to Dong Hoi

In much better spirits this evening.  The dreaded long ride to Dong Hoi today wasn’t so bad.  A bit of spray in the air for the first hour or two but I kept the visor down the whole way and adjusted to poorer visibility.  Eyes much better this evening.  Fewer trucks and a better road meant I could go faster.  Also, for quite a long way, there was a small motorbike lane allowing us to pass on the inside of the huge lorries – hair-raising (if I had any) but it enabled me to keep up a good pace and I managed to cover the 200k in good time. 

Clearly there are no laws on pollution here.  Most of the lorries belch black smoke and all carry their own elaborately tuned and incredibly loud horn.  Seeing as I appear to be the only person using their wing mirror I can usually see them coming before they deafen me with their horn.  The buses are worse with the drivers priding themselves how close a shave they can have with an oncoming truck and how loud their horns are.  They pull out around bends and even when they can clearly see a huge lorry coming from the other direction.  The accident rate is apparently very high and no wonder.  I’ve been told that learning to drive is optional; cars and bikes are often sold with the driving licence thrown in.  And as for noise pollution… the horn blasts can be heard all night, especially in the cities. 

My first 'road kill' today, as they are called.  A chicken came running across the road from my left while I was belting down the road just outside a village.  Didn't see it till the last moment and with a lorry on my tail, I couldn't even stop afterwards.  Just felt something hit the wheel.  Maybe it survived; I hope so.  It does beg the inevitable question though: Why did the chicken ...?

This is how to buy bananas

I’m now staying at the Saigon Quang Binh Hotel in Dong Hoi, a very pleasant town very near the coast on the Nhat Le river.  It was flattened by the Americans but has been rebuilt.  Lots of huge Chinese nets in the river.  I’m sure the weather has lifted my spirits.  I’ve just walked along the river and into a wonderful market in just my shirtsleeves.  It’s suddenly so much warmer.  I’m glad because I can begin to ditch some of the warmer clothes I bought in the mountains.  Clearly few tourists stop here because I got a lot of stares and smiles from people, and ‘Hello’s from children brave enough to try it out on me.  Everyone here, as they were in Hanoi, is very much gearing up for Tet, the four-day Vietnamese New Year celebrations next week.  All over the place one sees people on their motorbikes transporting small mandarin trees weighed down with ripe fruit, or plum trees in blossom.  Both are traditional at Tet.  Decorations and special foods are being bought for the biggest festival of the year.  Seeing as nothing is open for four days I was advised to bunker down somewhere so hope to be in Hoi An the whole time.   

Mandarin tree on motorbike in Hanoi